Vocational curriculum development and community engagement

Case study

Kirk Hallam Community Technology and Sports College in Derbyshire has introduced personalised approaches to the secondary curriculum changes to create a flexible ‘agenda of achievement’ through development of applied learning within the vocational curriculum at Key Stages 4 and 5, and community engagement and involvement through the extended curriculum.

School context

Kirk Hallam Community Technology and Sports College is an 11–19 specialist leading edge college with 1,025 on roll, serving an urban and rural area of Derbyshire. The newly opened sixth form centre is shared by three other local secondary schools.

Nature of the reforms

The school has adopted an incremental, flexible approach.

• It has developed applied learning at Key Stages 4 and 5 with courses including Agriculture and Horticulture, Engineering and Science BTEC First Certificate courses that have led to high-level pupil engagement and 100% pass rates. The success of these courses has led to a demand for and delivery of Diplomas in Media, IT, Engineering and land-based studies across the consortium of schools in the South East Derbyshire Secondary School Improvement Partnership.
• Personalised approaches have been introduced to the Key Stage 4 curriculum; for example the science curriculum offers students five different pathways, generating a flexible ‘agenda for achievement’. Innovative approaches to Key Stage 4 English and Maths have introduced new areas of study and created opportunities for higher achievement.
• An extended curriculum has been developed, engaging and involving the community that supports the personal development of the students. The annual exchange programme with schools from Toyota city in Japan and participation in the Toyota Challenge Engineering competition has encouraged Key Stage 3 students to engage with the vocational curriculum at Key Stage 4. The College raises student awareness of cultural diversity through events such as a World Culture Day and a Sikh Awareness Day and through the large number of international visitors arranged as part of the extended curriculum. Parents and the wider local community are encouraged to become involved in the wide range of extra-curricular activities available to students, for example the gardening club.

Leadership of the reforms

Curriculum reform has been enabled through:

• a vision based on the principle that incremental improvement, within a complementary formal and innovative extended curriculum that provides breadth and balance, will lead to success for every learner
• a culture of shared values, with the centrality of student learning needs at the core, leading to the development of a personalised, flexible curriculum encouraging the highest level of success for all

• a curriculum structure generated from whole staff, cross-subject discussion and work with cluster schools, which has enabled diploma lines to be developed successfully and has led to a newly opened sixth form centre
• a commitment to distributed leadership and an extensive programme of continuing professional development (CPD) that underpins and supports the principles of teaching and learning across the College and in particular a heavy investment in ICT that supports collaborative learning within the new technologies
• a consultation process that has engaged contributions from all staff, cascaded them through subject leader and focus groups and engaged with the views of students through the work of a strong student council

Transition

Continuity and progression through the transition from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3 is supported by the employment of a head of transition to foster liaison with feeder primary schools and to develop a clear understanding of the pupils’ needs prior to transition. Transition from Key Stage 3 to Key Stage 4 is supported by an investment in a personalised system of guidance offered to each student.

Evaluation

Ongoing evaluation occurs by internal monitoring of developments through regular curriculum review and annual consultation with all stakeholders.

Challenges

The leadership challenges faced by the school and the levers used to overcome them were:

• ensuring that "all staff are on board” and not just the committed few. This was achieved by taking an inclusive, egalitarian approach to staff development, and encouraging staff voice through forum meetings and annual review
• creating an innovative culture that encourages creative risk taking that has been facilitated through teamwork and a robust quality assurance system, with sharing of good practice across the consortium of schools
• the College principal views levels of additional funding as a potential significant barrier to continued development

Key learning

• Incremental rather than revolutionary approach to change
• Holistic personalised approaches to student development
• Focus on breadth and balance within the developing curriculum
• Facilitation of crosscurricular team working
• Community engagement to facilitate the extended curriculum

Research Associate: Susan Jardine, Caistor Yarborough School